October 17, 2008

The Chicago Spire is back in the news, and not for selling another of its expensive condos.

There are new questions about whether the skyscraper, which would become the tallest building in America, is going to get built.

A firm associated with project architect Santiago Calatrava has filed a lien with the Cook County Recorder of Deeds against developer Shelbourne Development Group Inc., saying he is owed $11.3 million on the project. Separately, architectural firm Perkins+Will has filed a lien seeking $4.8 million in payment.

The developers of the Spire, 400 N. Lake Shore Drive, have said more than 30 percent of the units in the 2,000-foot-tall building are sold, but they also have acknowledged being in a "slowing-down phase," and the site has been quiet.

News of the liens was first reported by Crain's Chicago Business. Representatives for the Spire, Calatrava and Perkins did not immediately return telephone calls for comment.

Here is additional reporting on the Spire from The Skyline:

Reached at the family’s home in Manhattan, Calatrava’s wife Tina declined to comment.

Other consultants hired by Shelbourne Development—structural engineers, mechanical engineers, wind tunnel consultants and others—are likely owed millions of dollars. It is not known if they have filed liens against Kelleher’s company.

A reporter looking down on the Spire construction site from a nearby high-rise on Thursday saw no activity. The construction cranes that first appeared in the summer of 2007 were gone. Nothing was there but a hole in the ground, 76 feet deep and 110 feet across. The hole is surrounded by caissons that would have supported the skyscraper’s concrete core.

Ironically, a real estate advertisement for the Spire appeared this week in the Chicago Tribune, saying that the project had been under construction for more than one year.

The large display advertisement, which appeared Thursday on page 10 of the Tribune’s main news section, was illustrated by a computerized rendering showing the Spire twisting above shorter lakefront towers. The ad trumpeted in capital letters that the 150-story skyscraper has been “UNDER CONSTRUCTION SINCE JUNE 2007.”

The ad copy read: “The Chicago Spire by Santiago Calatrava is a collection of unique and extraordinary condominium residences. The most significant residential development in the world.”

From the time it was first announced in 20005, the Spire captured the public’s imagination, not only because of its great height (a projected 2,000 feet) and uniquely twisting design but also because the charismatic Calatrava took a personal interest in the project, wowing crowds as he made sketches of the design at public meetings.

Along with the city’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, the iconic proposal came to symbolize Chicago’s aspirations to become a “global city,” a worldwide center of culture as well as commerce.

The Spire is not the only high-profile Calatrava to be buffeted in recent weeks. In early October, the owners of the World Trade Center in New York City scaled back the architect’s design for a multibillion dollar transit hub and said it would open in 2014, five years later than the original completion date.

The cost of the complex transit hub, now pegged at $3.2 billion, has soared to 50 percent higher than the original budget.

Comments

Shelbourne has run that ad several times in the Trib.
I also do online surveys for the Trib & the ad was the subject of one survey in the last two weeks.
The surveys are all structured the same, questions as to whether you have seen the ad, liked the ad, knew the advertiser & are you going to look up more info on the advertiser.

As to the building, it's going to just be a hole until next October, then the IOC decides on the 2016 Olympic city. If Chicago wins, then the construction will restart, if we don't get it, then the hole will be filled in or a much shorter building will go up there using the same foundation.

It is the unfortune of the developer to have planned this beautiful structure, and then have it overshadowed by a severe economic downturn. Hopefully it will eventually be finished as a fantastic architectural addition to the Chicago skyline.